Monticello

The very next weekend was Scouting Day at Monticello in Charlottesville, VA.  This meant that admissions were 1/2 off....a huge savings.  We had not yet gone to visit there becuase of the price!  We had to jump at this offer and it was so fun and totally a learning experience for the kids AND adults.  I came away with a much greater appreciation for our founding leaders of our great, amazing country.  Their courage, bravery, honesty, and drive are inspirational!

 Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence at age 33.  WOW!

 This house is 3 stories tall.  It took over 40 years to build and is AMAZING in the basement.  Thomas Jefferson had over 600 slaves, although he didn't like slavery.  He owned 6000 acres of land and had a HUGE garden, orchards for fruit/wine and at one time, he had 29 people staying at his house.  He traveled to Europe after the start of his house.  After 6 years, he came back and told the builders to stop where they were.  He quickly changed the look of the finished product and had the builders restart several places on his house.  It has many european influences.  The kitchen is AMAZING!  The entire basement is one long hallway with rooms off to the sides.  He had a huge ice house- DEEP into the ground.  When we walked past it, you could feel the cold air from this area.  He had a clock with 7 balls on the wall- each for the day of the week.  The ball would drop as the time ticked by and this way he knew what day of the week it was!  AMAZING!!!!  He had 29 houses built for his slaves....all for a purpose- it was called Mulberry Row.  Thomas Jefferson lived until he was 83...he died on July 4th.... the stairs in his house where very very narrow and steep- he didn't want to waste space.  I also thought it was very interesting that he had all the beds built into the wall...so that the space in the rooms could be fully used!

 The 'necessary house'...or the bathroom; in the main house, he had a north and a south necessary house.

 Beautiful stone work!!!!

 It was an absolutely gorgeous day too....almost getting up to 70*F.  We couldn't ask for better weather!